ELECTION YEAR MISHEGAS

The beginning of the year until now, the Commander in Chief has been in election year mode.  To the detriment of public health and safety, he continues to divide and throw up laser lights, fireworks disinformation and down right nutty proposals to remain in the spotlight. Tweeting at all hours and lying when it is totally unnecessary, only to act as if he was right, even though the professionals all agree he’s nuts, and with potential deadly consequence, as long as the laser has power he will attempt to make you look over there.

The distraction is obvious and does not make sense. He is instilling fear in the one demographic he needs for re-election – older voters.  Older voters are the most likely to vote, they rely on professional medical staff and science and are alienated when he promotes fake cures and puts them at risk, by not promoting masks and then promoting premature opening of the economy.  Seniors see that these lies and deceit and his antics are taking its toll in the polls and having him slip with senior citizens. 

Again, I can see a conspiracy theory growing: to wit, he is attempting to kill off the older population by promoting these fake cures, some of which can led to death to reduce the number of seniors and therefore increasing his chances.  He knows the more he can discourage voters other than his base, the more likely he can win.  Is he is banking on complacency, fear and death for his re-election?

His sleaze team, run by his dotard-in-training children, is putting out tweets with pictures with Biden and children and captions that ask is he a pedophile?  The tweet should have read “am I an asshole for tweeting this crap?”  It will only get worse from the clown show and will intensify in the next few months.  All in an attempt to paint Biden with enough fog as to turn others off.  This is so cynical.

Why does he not run on his presidential record in the worst disaster since the great depression?  The responsibility of the president is the health and welfare of all its citizens.  His absence is due to his knowing he has botched all efforts from the beginning and he does not want to be tarnished.  So what does he do? He blames the states, even though the CDC did issue initial guidelines, he pushes aside the guidelines, and he insists states reopen despite the guidance from the CDC.

He is walking back any efforts and giving responsibility to the states as fast as he can, while the death rate is approaching 100,000.  As late as March, Trump predicted it would just disappear by April. So what happened in April?  There were 20,000 soles who lost their lives due to his initial inaction.  I can point to where he has downplayed initial indications and downplayed the virus, while the Health care community, the Security professionals, HHS, CDC and others warned him of the upcoming pandemic, while other countries took the virus seriously and are not currently having troubles opening.  They knew testing was the key, and provided testing and contact tracing.  The UK and the US were both late in instituting stay-at-home, social distancing, and masks.  Both countries are now experiencing the highest death rates.

CONSPERACY or CRUELTY?

Forced labor and bad choices is how the Republican party is attempting to force states to re-open knowing they do not meet CDC guidelines.  The time frame when everyone was in lockdown, was squandered by the young dotards and Pence in their total failure in getting enough complete test kits and re-agents to safely open.  These are all necessary to determine who has the virus, and if there is a community spread.  Without these assurances the numbers will come back just like pissing in the wind.

Below I will explore at least two ways they are forcing bad decisions to be made by the public, other than the encouragement for the states to open prematurely by the dotard in chief, which encourages division.

A number of Republican governors have been caught having their constituents choose between health and starvation.  This is accomplished by eliminating anyone who is offered to return to their prior job but refuses for any reason. They are eliminated from the rolls and cannot collect unemployment.  This could force them to ultimately make life or death decisions.  If they are faced with unsafe working conditions and a lack of testing, close quarters, and possibly reduced immunities, must they choose between employment with the potential consequences or starvation?

The second way involves Wilber Ross and his withholding of funds, meant to support the state’s unemployment insurance and PPP, that was to be used for small businesses to pay employees during the shutdown.  Ross has only spent 175 of the over 500 billion dollars meant to put money in the public’s pocket, however almost all of the other $2.5 billion has mostly been given to those who need it least, and has been committed. 

This withholding of 325 billion dollars puts a delay in un-employment benefits and it forces employees to make very poor choices.  That of, work or go bankrupt and starve.  This also starves the employer that was going to use the grants to pay the employees.  The result of the delays causes the employees to demand to go back to work, even though their workplaces like restaurants, bars and theaters don’t have the testing, PPE and definitive clear requirements to be able to safely open.  All this political pressure being used in a pandemic is totally disgusting.  Trump administration is forcing bad choices with total dis-regard for the public health, for which every prior administration knew they were responsible for.

OTHER NEWS

The POTUS preferred construction company was given the largest contract thus far for construction on the border wall.  The 1.3 Billion dollar sweetheart contract is a waste of dollars for a vanity project.  There are reasons no other president has opted to complete a wall from the gulf to the Pacific Ocean.  It’s called desert and mountains, with no water, and virtually impassable terrain.

Europe is reopening and guess what? None of the European economies suffered more than a few % in unemployment over the norm during their shutdown.  This was due to the relief geared to the general public, who were given 75-80% of their pay prior to the pandemic.  The economic recovery will be swift as a result and with very little disruption.  A lesson this administration should not ignore.  Relief should always be bottoms up.  The fools at the top don’t realize the money will always come back, it just takes time and intelligence, as Darwin would say.

The preamble to the Constitution states, as one of the document’s basic goals was meant to “promote the general welfare”.  I take this to mean health, as well as security.